


Vi er krigere, alle oss

by Lakritzwolf



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: Gen, Troll hunting, Viking AU, a pinch of Bagginshield
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-28
Updated: 2017-02-28
Packaged: 2018-09-27 11:57:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10019804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lakritzwolf/pseuds/Lakritzwolf
Summary: This is for khafushun, the prize from the WinterFRE2017.A story to go with the moodboard I made for Prompt 31: Norway, Viking era. Fili and Kili are the village’s best warriors. They also hunt trolls.I hope you’ll like this!





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Khafushun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khafushun/gifts).



> The title says: _We are warriors, all of us_ in Norwegian because I don’t speak Old Norse.

The leaves were turning and most of the berries had ripened and had been plucked by busy hands to be stored for the winter, either dried or cooked into preserves. And with the coldness coming in on the northern winds, the ships came back home after the summer’s raids. 

A few children watching the goats grazing on the slopes above the village spotted the carved dragonhead emerging from the fog, and they forgot about the goats and came running screaming down into the village. 

Shortly after, the whole village was gathered at the pier and watched the ship sail across Ravensfjord and home in towards the small harbour. The sails were lowered and the men aboard took to the oars, and the prow of the ship cut silently through the waters as they neared their destination.

At the stern, his arm around the neck of the dragon, stood their leader Thorin Oakenshield, one of the mightiest warriors in the lands under the Blue Mountains. Bearing himself as proudly as a king, he let his eyes roam over the assembled crowd of cheering villagers, and his mouth curved into a small smile. 

A few of the older boys now ran forward to catch the ropes that were thrown from the ship, and within moments Durin’s Dragon was safely moored. Thorin was the first to leave the ship and he was greeted by his cousin Balin who had, in his absence, taken care of the affairs of the village. A mighty warrior once, Balin’s hair was now almost completely white and his raiding days were long over, but Oakenshield valued him and his wisdom highly. There was a promise between them, that one of these years, Oakenshield would take the old veteran along one last time, for him to die a warrior with his sword in hand so they could meet again in Odin’s halls. 

The next person to greet the chief was his sister Dis, but after a quick but firm embrace her eyes were back on the ship as she looked for her sons. 

“They’re here, sister, both whole and healthy, and they did you and their father great honour.”  
His sister gave him a dark look. “I meant it.”  
“I know, my raven.” Thorin smiled. “And since I have no desire to part with any of my manhood I took good care of them. Not that they aren’t completely capable of that themselves. They are formidable young men, Dis.”  
“I know. I raised them.” Dis adjusted her shawl around her shoulders. “That’s why I don’t want them to be wasted at such a young age.”  
“Wasted?” Thorin chuckled. “Since when is a glorious death in battle a waste?”

Dis opened her mouth, shook her head and snapped it shut again. “Men,” she muttered. Then her eyes lit up as she saw her firstborn disembark. 

“Women,” Thorin said, mimicking her tone and facial expression, but she didn’t hear him anymore.

“Fili!” She hurried to meet her eldest son.  
“Mother!” Fili, golden-haired and blue-eyed as if he was the son of Baldr himself, swept his mother up in an embrace and spun her around like a child, ignoring her undignified squeal.

After he had set her down, still laughing, Dis adjusted her shawl and her headscarf and shook her head with a fond smile. But before she could get sentimental about him looking so much like his father, who dined with Odin now every night, her younger son hopped over the railing without bothering with the plank. 

“Mother!”  
“Kili!” 

They embraced as well, and she kissed her younger son’s cheeks. 

“We come with gifts!” Kili announced proudly.   
“Come home first,” Dis said with a laugh. “I made bread this morning and there is mutton roast left from last night.”  
“You have no idea how good that sounds,” Fili said and slung his bundle over his shoulder.  
“After months of wayfarer’s food,” Kili added. “If I never see a dried fish again it’ll be too soon.”  
Dis chuckled. “Then you will have a very meagre winter, my son. And I guess you won’t be going out with the warriors again next year either.” She winked. “Which is fine, really, since we can always use more hands here.”

Kili rolled his eyes, but he grinned. Smiling, the two brothers followed their mother while behind them, the other warriors disembarked to be welcomed and greeted by happy family members. 

Kili, Fili and their mother exchanged a knowing little smile as they passed the small Saxon man who was standing a little apart from all the others. He had been captured on a raid and Thorin had taken him as a household servant, but had grown very fond of him over the years. He had eventually offered him his freedom and also offered to take him home again to the fertile green lands of his home, but Bilbo had apparently grown very fond of Thorin in turn and had politely but firmly refused. And while he wasn’t much of a warrior he had a core of steel under his kind and gentle exterior, and he was also an excellent cook. Dis knew her brother well taken care of and smiled as the small man vanished in Thorin’s embrace. 

After dropping their heavy bundles clinking with steel into a corner of her mother’s house, the two brothers stepped towards the hearth and the blazing fire to warm their hands and faces. Dis quickly poured mead and put bread and cold meat onto the table. 

“Eat,” she said to her sons. “You have to be famished.”  
“You have no idea,” Fili said as he fell down onto the bench and grabbed a large chunk of bread.   
“Oh, I do,” Dis replied with a wistful smile. “Your father could have eaten half an ox every time he came home in autumn.”

Kili lowered the chunk of bread he had been about to bite into. “You still miss him, don’t you?”  
“I do,” his mother replied. “And I shall miss him until the day the gods see fit to reunite us again. But he did not leave me alone, and he gave me the most precious things in the world.” 

Fili and Kili looked at each other, and a gentle hand came to rest on each of their heads. “Two wonderful, strong and beautiful sons, proud warriors and true sons of Durin’s blood.”

“Hail Durin,” the two replied, in the customary reverence to the name of the ancient hero, their forefather, who had slain giants at the side of the gods. 

Then Dis shook her head with a sigh and dropped her shawl onto the bench before she walked towards the hearth again. 

“I am sure Balin will come over shortly,” she said as she hung up a kettle over the fire. “I know you just came home, but the trolls are giving us troubles again.”  
“Again?” Fili looked at his brother who had his mouth too full to reply. “We killed half a dozen this spring!”  
“I know.” Dis lowered herself down into a crouch and put a few more logs onto the fire. “But we already lost two cows and a few goats during the summer.”  
“Then it’s about time,” Kili said after swallowing. “Just give us a night of rest or two.”

Having eaten their fill the brothers unpacked their bundles and presented their mother with the gifts they had brought: Fili had a large bronze brooch made from an intricate weaving of wires, and Kili had a set of bracelets, made in a similar fashion, both acquired on the isle of Eire.

When Dis had fed her sons until they were ready to burst at the seams, the two bade her goodnight after thanking her for the meal and headed towards their own home. 

Everyone in the village knew why the two unmarried brothers shared a house, and no one was bothered by it. They were harming no one, and as brothers couldn’t accidentally produce children who might be damaged by inbreeding. Apart from that, there were plenty of children in the village who descended as much from Durin as the two brothers did, so there would be a future son of Durin as their leader no matter what.

Of course Oakenshield would have preferred one of his closest kin, one of his nephews, to carry on bearing Durin’s sword, but Dis had told her brother in no uncertain terms what she thought of his idea of getting one of them to marry to produce heirs. And since she had been a fearsome shield maiden before she had married, Thorin had made the wise decision not to interfere with her son’s lives that way as he did not fancy losing any significant body parts.

So now Fili and Kili had, for the first time since they had set sail in spring, a night to themselves, just the two of them, with warm furs and a crackling fire and no one who could disturb them. 

They settled down and smiled at each other, the firelight dancing in orange flickers across their skin, and were both out cold within a few heartbeats.

* * *

Dis woke her sons the next morning with another freshly baked loaf and a jug of warm, honeyed milk, and she had Balin in tow who informed the two young warriors of the troll attacks. 

“Bold as brass,” the older man said. “We had to start guarding the livestock at night, and the fences we built were apparently of no use. One of them pushed Ori down from a precipice as he was watching the goats before he could blow the horn. Then it took four of them, and our best dairy goats at that.”  
“Odin’s balls!” Fili stared at the old man in dismay. “Is the lad all right?”  
“He will be,” Balin replied. “He broke an arm, but thankfully the drop wasn’t too deep and his fall was cushioned by shrubbery. But they got closer to the village than ever before.”

Fili dunked a piece of bread into the warm milk and shoved it into his mouth.

“We will see to that, cousin,” he said after swallowing.   
“Before someone gets killed,” Kili added. “I wonder what made them so bold.”  
“It’s possible that a new pack has settled down somewhere close,” Balin replied. “The boys who guard the cattle said they found more traces leading up into the mountains than ever before.”

Fili and Kili exchanged a glance and nodded at each other.

“We leave as soon as we have eaten,” Fili said. “We can rest once we know our children are safe.”

Dis smiled proudly at her sons, and Balin nodded with a proud smile of his own.

* * *

The two brothers left the village shortly before noon, Fili with his twin blades strapped to his back and his brother with his longsword and his strong hunting bow.

And true to Balin’s words, they found tracks not too far from the village.

“Look at that,” Kili said as he went down onto one knee. “It’s fresh. It’s from last night.”  
Fili frowned as he looked around. “They have to live close by. Let’s see where the tracks lead us.”

They followed the tracks that wound along the flank of the mountain, walking under birches that were no longer bearing veils in mild green but reddish brown and fiery orange. The ground was soft with thick layers of moss, which made tracking something as huge and clumsy as a troll that much easier.

Once they had reached the top of the hill they looked back down at the village and the smoke rising from the chimneys, and the boat that had been pulled ashore for the winter. Then they looked ahead, across the valley cut by the river that fed into Ravensfjord. 

In silence, they watched the mountain ridge shaped like a sleeping dragon. Many a legend was told about it, and most of them told in low voices, or to scare the children. 

“Do you think Smaug will awaken too when Ragnarok comes?” Kili asked his brother.  
“Possibly,” Fili replied. “And if he does, we will stand ready.”

Kili smiled at his brother and their eyes met. Fili stepped closer and their bodies almost touched now.

“Although I hope to have many summers fighting at your side until he does,” he said.  
Kili tilted his head. “And many winters snuggled up in the furs in peace,” he added with a wink.  
“Aye, that too.” Fili grinned and closed his arms around his brother.

For the moment the two forgot about the trolls, but not for long. The wind was chilly up here and didn’t allow standing still for too long.

The brothers followed the tracks of the trolls until, with falling dusk, they had reached the rocky outcrops where the hills above Ravensfjord rose up into the mountains. 

With darkness approaching they advanced more cautious now, and Fili drew his swords as Kili strung and readied his bow. 

It wasn’t before long that they could hear the rumbling growls of trolls, and they could smell their foul stench before they could see them outlined at the fire. Two, but they weren’t very big. 

Fili went into a crouch and gestured at his brother, and Kili nodded as he knocked an arrow. He vanished into the darkness and Fili kept his eyes on the trolls. 

His brother was the best archer, and his aim was true even in the murky twilight created by flickering fire in the darkness. His arrow, swift and silent death, buried itself into the eye socket of one of the trolls, and it fell over very slowly, accompanied by the screams of alarm from the second one. 

Now Fili jumped up from behind the bushes, hefting his blades, and charged at the other troll while Kili pulled his longsword to join him. The troll swung a club made from a young oak with a rock tied into the first fork of the branches, but the two nimbly dodged the clumsy swings. They would have been crushed by a single blow, but the troll was no match for them. 

While the troll swung his club at Kili, Fili jumped around it and hacked at the thick legs, and his blade bit through the leathery skin to hamstring the troll who went down with a scream of pain and fury. 

Kili’s blade quickly silenced it for good. Then the two exchanged a grin, slightly out of breath.

“That was too easy,” Kili said brightly. 

From behind them, something large and heavy came crashing through the undergrowth.

“You just had to say that, didn’t you?” Filli rolled his eyes.  
Kili shrugged with a half-grin and hefted his blade.

This troll was not only larger than the first two, but also much faster. It had a huge club in each hand and charged at the two brothers with howls of fury. The two quickly stepped away from each other so the troll lost its target, and attacked from behind. 

Since this troll was larger the skin was thicker, and hamstringing wasn’t as easy as it had been with the two smaller ones. Fili attempted twice, and both times he only injured the troll and enraged it even more. But the two brothers were still faster than the creature, and eventually it was bleeding from so many cuts that it was slowed down by pain and loss of blood. Kili landed a blow into the back of the troll’s knees and as it went down, Fili swung his blade and cut the beast’s throat. 

With grim smiles of satisfaction they watched the troll collapse in a puddle of blood. 

Then Fili stepped closer and frowned. “Help me turn it around.”

Kili looked puzzled, but did as Fili asked him to. They both looked down at the dead troll and now Kili could see what Fili had seen as well. This troll had teats. It was a female.

“We have to find the cave,” Fili said. “Maybe they have a brood in there.”  
“That problem will solve itself,” Kili replied. “With the mother gone.”  
“Kili, we’re warriors, and we’re hunters.” Fili straightened up. “But we’re not torturers. If there’s a nest with their brood then we have to put them down. It’s the decent thing to do.”

Kili took a deep breath and nodded. “You’re right, brother. Let’s do this.”

They followed the track of the troll through the undergrowth until they found the cave, and Kili lit a torch. After hesitating for a moment because of the stench they entered and, trying not to inhale too deeply, had a look around. 

There was indeed a nest, and there was a small troll infant there, growling and hissing at them when they approached. Fili didn’t hesitate and quickly put it down. It wasn’t a glorious battle deed but a mercy killing, and Fili took no joy out of it. Yet it had to be done, he would let the creature starve and perish in agony as little as he would torture a troll to death instead of killing it cleanly. 

They both breathed in relief when they left the cave; the stench of troll was almost unbearable inside. Then Kili extinguished the torch and they waited for their night vision to return before they started on their way home. There was one thing to say about trolls: You didn’t have to bother with disposing of the bodies. The sun took care of that quickly and for good.

They reached the village again after sunrise, and the children came racing up to them, eagerly demanding tales of trolls and how they had slain them. Laughing, Fili and Kili obliged, although they took the freedom of embellishing the tale for the sake of the children’s amusement. 

Dis welcomed them with open arms and offered them mead and bread in her house again, and she accompanied her sons to their house afterwards to help them get comfortable. She had prepared a bath for them, had readied a large tub and hung a kettle over the fire to heat the water, but after she had poured the bath she left the two young warriors alone. They wanted and maybe even needed the privacy together right now, and Dis smiled as she closed the door behind her, knowing well how men could be after a battle.


End file.
